Apple working on technology to make a futuristic all-glass MacBook Pro

Someone can't draw an Apple logo.

If you could only go by the newly-revealed patent application "Electronic Device," you would think that the touchscreen element is less likely than the glass-back MacBook Pro. It's in this patent application practically as an aside, although it does crop up on eight pages, and each time in increasing detail.

Plus you don't have to go by this one patent application. Apple has previously been rumored to introduce a touchscreen MacBook Pro at some point in 2025.

Yet the real focus of the unusually boringly-named "Electronic Device" patent application is this business of the MacBook Pro lid being made of glass. Apple has been looking at whether, or when, to take the display part of a MacBook Pro and change to using glass on the back of it, where the Apple logo goes.

"Because laptop computers are typically portable devices, factors such as size, weight, and durability can affect the overall usefulness of the device," says Apple. "Further, the particular materials used for the laptop computer, and in particular, for the enclosure components, can impact the size, weight, and durability of the computer."

"For example," it continues, "enclosure materials such as plastic may be light, but may have relatively low durability."

Consequently, what Apple proposes is that the lid of a MacBook Pro contain "a metal housing component that defines the peripheral side surfaces... and glass sheets for the front and back surfaces of the display portion."

While most of the patent talks about an entire glass panel, at points, Apple refers to only parts of the back surface being glass. The patent is more than Apple just wanting to introduce a display, or to return us to those pre-2015 days when the Apple logo would light up.

"[Instead, this] configuration produces a display portion that is thin and light, while maintaining a high degree of stiffness," continues Apple. "Additionally, because the back of the display portion is made of glass, the back may be more resistant to scratches, cracking, warping, and other damage to which other materials may be susceptible."

Apple is regularly claimed to be working to merge the Mac with the iPad — and the company keeps saying no. Usually, though, what leakers mean by merging these devices is to have the same software operating system across them both.

In this case, Apple would actually be taking a hardware element of the iPhone and bringing it to the Mac. It's not the first time that an idea like this has been explored, either, as at one point Apple was shown to be researching making an iMac entirely from one sheet of glass.

This patent application is credited to four inventors. They include Lauren M. Farrell, who has many previous credits for patents and applications regarding displays.